and so, i enjoy the present very much because i sincerely believe that i don t know what s going to happen tomorrow. people often live in the future, think of the future. i think of today. today is the most important day of my life. [ theme ] bill: good morning my fellow americans and welcome to the full court press here on current tv this tuesday morning february 12. oh boy. lot going on today. and we are going to tell you what s happening all around the country, here in our nation s capital, around the globe as well and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. good have you with us today and it is a big day because president obama is poised to give his state of the union address tonight. he will say he s expected to put forth an aggressive, progressive agenda. he will tell us the state of the union is strong. which it is. meanwhile, catholics still can t believe that pope benedict xvi is actually resigning after all that hasn t happened in 600 years. joe biden says yeah
you say 9, he says 7, you say take it for 8. beautiful. so the republicans want to cut spending. they both say they want to cut the deficit. stop adding to the national debt. so, fortunately u we have a perfect number system to do it. the report says the federal government should only be spending 1 sdla$1 out of $5. raise $1 in $5 in taxes or stop complaining about the deaf silt. same for the democrats. if they want the government to spend more, they should back up that revenue level up to that amount. both sides want to bargain. if they really want to get to a solution, here it is. both sides have to agree, a, to tax stuff to pay for the government they believe in. and, b, limit the size of the government to the level that they re willing to pay for. beautiful. and that s hardball for now. thanks for being with us. politics nation with al sharpton starts right now. thanks, chris. and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight s lead, news flash for republicans. the presi
his cabinet. but that happened today to president barack obama. republicans in the senate decided to do something unprecedented to him. and to thereby set an entirely new precedent for how the presidency itself is treated in our country. when they said today that even though they could not muster a majority of votes on their side, they would maneuver anyway as a minority to block president barack obama from appointing his chosen secretary of defense. this has never happened before. to anyone ever. i mean, we have had cabinet nominees not make it through the senate confirmation process before. people who could not win over a majority of the senate so they did not get confirmed. we ve had that happen. we ve had people pull their name from contention when it became clear they could not win confirmation in the senate. but president obama s nominee for defense secretary chuck hagel, he does have majority support in the senate. what happened today is that a minority of that body, t
when they said today that even though they could not muster a majority of votes on their side, they would maneuver anyway as a minority to block president barack obama from appointing his chosen secretary of defense. this has never happened before. to anyone ever. i mean, we have had cabinet nominees not make it through the senate confirmation process before. people who could not win over a majority of the senate so they did not get confirmed. we ve had that happen. we ve had people pull their name from contention when it became clear they could not win confirmation in the senate. but president obama s nominee for defense secretary chuck hagel, he does have majority support in the senate. what happened today is that a minority of that body, the republicans, decided that they were going to block him anyway. never happened before. they filibustered a cabinet nomination. in the past, over the years there have been a couple of token efforts at maybe doing this in the past that go
that made history. today something happened in american politics that has never before happened in the history of our republic. in all of the trials and tribulations we have been through as a nation, through the wars, through the great depression, through the time when senators used to beat one another with canes inside the capitol, in everything we have ever been through as a nation what happened today has never happened before. not ever. not one of the 44 presidents our country has had has ever been blocked by a minority in the senate from choosing someone for his cabinet. but that happened today to president barack obama. republicans in the senate decided to do something unprecedented to him. and to thereby set an entirely new precedent for how the presidency itself is treated in our country. when they said today that even though they could not muster a majority of votes on their side, they would maneuver anyway as a minority to block president barack obama from appointing